Archive for the ‘SKOS’ Category

AGROVOC 2013 edition released

Monday, February 11th, 2013

AGROVOC 2013 edition released

From the post:

The AGROVOC Team is pleased to announce the release of the AGROVOC 2013 edition.

The updated version contains 32,188 concepts in up to 22 languages, resulting in a total of 626,211 terms (in 2012: 32,061 concepts, 625,096 terms).

Please explore AGROVOC by searching terms, or browsing hierarchies.

AGROVOC 2013 is available for download, and accessible via web services.

From the “about” page:

The AGROVOC thesaurus contains 32,188 concepts in up to 22 languages covering topics related to food, nutrition, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, environment and other related domains.

A global community of editors consisting of librarians, terminologists, information managers and software developers, maintain AGROVOC using VocBench, an open-source multilingual, web-based vocabulary editor and workflow management tool that allows simultaneous, distributed editing. AGROVOC is expressed in Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) and published as Linked Data.

Need some seeds for your topic map in “…food, nutrition, agriculture, fisheries, forestry, environment and other related domains”?

Posted in AGROVOC, Linked Data, SKOS, Vocabularies | No Comments »

New draft standard XKOS developed at Dagstuhl workshop

Saturday, November 17th, 2012

New draft standard XKOS developed at Dagstuhl workshop

From the post:

The AIMS team as part of its work in promoting good practices in information management participated in the development of the new draft standard XKOS at the Dagstuhl workshop “Semantic Statistics for Social, Behavioural, and Economic Sciences: Leveraging the DDI Model for the Linked Data Web” in Wadern, Germany, October 15-19, 2012. XKOS is an extension to the popular Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS), a W3C Recommendation, to meet the needs of classification schemes.

Improving visibility & discoverability of statistical data

XKOS is designed to facilitate the interoperability of micro and macro data both within and without the statistics domain and to be complementary to existing standards such as SDMX, DDI and RDF Data Cube. This proposed extension to SKOS may well become the basis for improving the visibility and discoverability of statistical data on the semantic web as well as a mechanism to maintain and disseminate classification schemes according to a standard, cross-domain, machine-readable format.

Acronym Safety Zone:

SDMX – Statistical Data and Metadata eXchange

Data Documentation Initiative

RDF Data Cube

Apologies but I was unable to find a draft of XKOS for a link. Do be aware that is also the acronym for the Korean stock exchange. ;-)

Posted in Data Documentation Initiative (DDI), RDF Data Cube Vocabulary, SDMX, SKOS, XKOS | No Comments »

VocBench

Wednesday, November 7th, 2012

VocBench

From the webpage:

VocBench is a web-based, multilingual, vocabulary editing and workflow tool developed by FAO. It transforms thesauri, authority lists and glossaries into SKOS/RDF concept schemes for use in a linked data environment. VocBench provides tools and functionalities that facilitate the collaborative editing of multilingual terminology and semantic concept information. It further includes administration and group management features as well as built in workflows for maintenance, validation and quality assurance of the data pool.

Current release is (1.3) but 2.0 is due out “Autumn 2012″ as open source GPL license.

Another tool that will be of interest to topic map authors.

Posted in Linked Data, RDF, SKOS, VocBench | No Comments »

Linked Legal Data: A SKOS Vocabulary for the Code of Federal Regulations

Sunday, August 26th, 2012

Linked Legal Data: A SKOS Vocabulary for the Code of Federal Regulations by Núria Casellas.

Abstract:

This paper describes the application of Semantic Web and Linked Data techniques and principles to regulatory information for the development of a SKOS vocabulary for the Code of Federal Regulations (in particular of Title 21, Food and Drugs). The Code of Federal Regulations is the codification of the general and permanent enacted rules generated by executive departments and agencies of the Federal Government of the United States, a regulatory corpus of large size, varied subject-matter and structural complexity. The CFR SKOS vocabulary is developed using a bottom-up approach for the extraction of terminology from text based on a combination of syntactic analysis and lexico-syntactic pattern matching. Although the preliminary results are promising, several issues (a method for hierarchy cycle control, expert evaluation and control support, named entity reduction, and adjective and prepositional modifier trimming) require improvement and revision before it can be implemented for search and retrieval enhacement of regulatory materials published by the Legal Information Institute. The vocabulary is part of a larger Linked Legal Data project, that aims at using Semantic Web technologies for the representation and management of legal data.

Considers use of nonregulatory vocabularies, conversion of existing indexing materials and finally settles on NLP processing of the text.

Granting that Title 21, Food and Drugs is no walk in the part, take a peek at the regulations for Title 26, Internal Revenue Code. ;-)

A difficulty that I didn’t see mentioned is the changing semantics in statutory law and regulations.

The definition of “person,” for example, varies widely depending upon where it appears. Both chronologically and synchronically.

Moreover, if I have a nonregulatory vocabulary and/or CFR indexes, why shouldn’t that map to the CFR SKOS vocabulary?

I may not have the “correct” index but the one I prefer to use. Shouldn’t that be enabled?

I first saw this at Legal Informatics.

Posted in Law, Law - Sources, Linked Data, SKOS | No Comments »

Linked Media Framework [Semantic Web vs. ROI]

Tuesday, July 10th, 2012

Linked Media Framework

From the webpage:

The Linked Media Framework is an easy-to-setup server application that bundles central Semantic Web technologies to offer advanced services. The Linked Media Framework consists of LMF Core and LMF Modules.

LMF Usage Scenarios

The LMF has been designed with a number of typical use cases in mind. We currently support the following tasks out of the box:

Target groups are a in particular casual users who are not experts in Semantic Web technologies but still want to publish or work with Linked Data, e.g. in the Open Government Data and Linked Enterprise Data area.

It is a bad assumption that workers in business or government have free time to add semantics to their data sets.

If adding semantics to your data, by linked data or other means is a core value, resource the task just like any other with your internal staff or hire outside help.

A Semantic Web short coming is the attitude that users are interested in or have the time to build it. Assuming the project to be worthwhile and/or doable.

Users are fully occupied with tasks of their own and don’t need a technical elite tossing more tasks onto them. You want the Semantic Web? Suggest you get on that right away.

Integrated data that meets a business need and has proven ROI isn’t the same thing as the Semantic Web. Give me a call if you are interested in the former, not the latter. (I would do the latter as well, but only on your dime.)

I first saw this at semanticweb.com, announcing version 2.2.0 of lmf – Linked Media Framework.

Posted in Linked Data, RDF, SKOS, SPARQL, Semantic Web | No Comments »

LAC Releases Government of Canada Core
Subject Thesaurus

Thursday, July 7th, 2011

LAC Releases Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus

From the post:

The government of Canada has released a new downloadable version of its Core Subject Thesaurus in SKOS/RDF format. According to Library and Archives Canada, “The Government of Canada Core Subject Thesaurus is a bilingual thesaurus consisting of terminology that represents all the fields covered in the information resources of the Government of Canada. Library and Archives Canada is exploring the potential for linked data and the semantic web with LAC vocabularies, metadata and open content.”

When you reach the post with links to the vocabulary you will find it is also available as XML and CVS.

There are changes from the 2009 version.

Here’s an example:

old form new form French equivalent
Adaptive aids
(for persons
with disabilities)		 Assistive Technologies Technologie d’aide

Did you notice that the old form and new form don’t share a single word in common?

Imagine that, an unstable core subject thesaurus.

Over time, more terms will be added, changed and deleted. Is there a topic map in the house?

Posted in Government Data, RDF, SKOS | No Comments »

iQvoc 3.0 released

Monday, May 9th, 2011

iQvoc 3.0 released

An SKOS tool that is described on its “about” page as:

iQvoc is a web-based open source tool for managing vocabularies (classifications, thesauri, etc.). It combines an intuitive user interface with Semantic Web standards.

The navigation is intuitive, providing direct links and hierarchical tree visualizations. All common browsers are supported. Due to iQvoc’s modular architecture, its appearance can be easily and extensively customized.

iQvoc covers a comprehensive range of capabilities:

  • support for multiple languages in both the user interface and the content corpus (i.e. labels, notes etc.)
  • import/export of existing SKOS vocabularies
  • editorial control and workflow
  • notes and annotations
  • use of the vocabulary within the Linked Data network
  • modularity and extensibility

Posted in SKOS, Vocabularies | No Comments »

PoolParty

Tuesday, May 3rd, 2011

PoolParty

From the website:

PoolParty is a thesaurus management system and a SKOS editor for the Semantic Web including text mining and linked data capabilities. The system helps to build and maintain multilingual thesauri providing an easy-to-use interface. PoolParty server provides semantic services to integrate semantic search or recommender systems into enterprise systems like CMS, web shops, CRM or Wikis.

I encountered PoolParty in the video Pool Party – Semantic Search.

The video elides over a lot of difficulties but what effective advertising doesn’t?

Curious if anyone is familiar with this group/product?

Update: 31 May 2011

Slides: Pool Party – Semantic Search

Nice slide deck on semantic search issues.

Posted in Linked Data, SKOS, Semantic Web, Thesaurus | No Comments »

UMLS-SKOS

Sunday, October 31st, 2010

UMLS-SKOS

Abstract:

SKOS is a Semantic Web framework for representing thesauri, classification schemes, subject heading systems, controlled vocabularies, and taxonomies. It enables novel ways of representing terminological knowledge and its linkage with domain knowledge in unambiguous, reusable, and encapsulated fashion within computer applications. According to the National Library of Medicine, the UMLS Knowledge Source (UMLS-KS) integrates and distributes key terminology, classification and coding standards, and associated resources to promote creation of more effective and interoperable biomedical information systems and services “that behave as if they ‘understand’ the meaning of the language of biomedicine and health”. However the current information representation model utilized by UMLS-KS itself is not conducive to computer programs effectively retrieving and automatically and unambiguously interpreting the ‘meaning’ of the biomedical terms and concepts and their relationships.

In this presentation we propose using Simple Knowledge Organization System (SKOS) as an alternative to represent the body of knowledge incorporated within the UMLS-KS within the framework of the Semantic Web technologies. We also introduce our conceptualization of a transformation algorithm to produce an SKOS representation of the UMLS-KS that integrates UMLS-Semantic Network, the UMLS-Metathesaurus complete with all its source vocabularies as a unified body of knowledge along with appropriate information to trace or segregate information based on provenance and governance information. Our proposal and method is based on the idea that formal and explicit representation of any body of knowledge enables its unambiguous, and precise interpretation by automated computer programs. The consequences of such undertaking would be at least three fold: 1) ability to automatically check inconsistencies and errors within a large and complex body of knowledge, 2) automated information interpretation, integration, and discovery, and 3) better information sharing, repurposing and reusing (adoption), and extending the knowledgebase within a distributed and collaborative community of researchers. We submit that UMLS-KS is no exception to this and may benefit from all those advantages if represented fully using a formal representation language. Using SKOS in combination with the transformation algorithm introduced in this presentation are our first steps in that direction. We explain our conceptualization of the algorithms, problems we encountered and how we addressed them with a brief gap analysis to outline the road ahead of us. At the end we also present several use cases from our laboratories at the School of Health information Sciences utilizing this artifact.

WebEx Recording Presentation

Slides

The slides are good but you will need to watch the presentation to give them context.

My only caution concerns:

Our proposal and method is based on the idea that formal and explicit representation of any body of knowledge enables its unambiguous, and precise interpretation by automated computer programs.

I don’t doubt that our computers can return “unambiguous, and precise interpretation[s]” but that isn’t the same thing as “correct” interpretations.

Posted in Bioinformatics, Biomedical, SKOS, UMLS | No Comments »